Environemental variables server as global variables in unix envrionment. They are used for passing on values from a shell/ process to another. They are inherited by Abinitio as sandbox variables/ graph parameters like
AI_SORT_MAX_CORE
AI_HOME
AI_SERIAL
AI_MFS etc.

To know what all variables exist, in your unix shell, find out the naming convention and type a command like “env | grep AI”. This will provide you a list of all the
variables set in the shell. You can refer to the graph parameters/ components to see how these variables are used inside Abinitio.